Ticktr

Although movie ticket apps for smartphones have been around in the US since the turn of the millennium, this service wasn’t available for local movie theatres until early 2015, when Ticktr was launched in Trinidad. Ticktr was partly founded by a Trinidadian, California-based entrepreneur who’d sought to find a solution to the difficulties that existed in buying things locally. As this problem was being solved, they approached us to start talking about the brand, and how they would introduce the service to a local public that had been unaccustomed to it. They were really passionate about what they were doing, and their contagious enthusiasm led to us taking on their project at an entrepreneurial rate. We assessed their brand and came up with a strategy brand fact sheet; we provided a compact SWOT analysis as well.

After initial analyses, we moved quickly into design. This was a learning curve for us – at that time we had never developed an identity for an app brand. It was a challenge because, in a way, it needed to be so seemingly simple, yet sophisticated, while also being fairly full-frontal for a local market. We did a bold, modern take on the classic ticket icon, bright colours and negative space to develop the mark, and gradient background patterns. Typography was elegant and straightforward, and two main ideas were conveyed through copy to pare down the core concept of the app: “From the little screen, to the big screen,” and “Movie tickets on your phone. Finally.” We also did some animation work to help explain the service. In helping to develop the tone of the app and to analyse its potential position, Abovegroup became part of the project development team as we helped to solidify the ways in which the brand would speak to the public. Because Ticktr’s budget for activation was low, we used their launch as an internship opportunity – students at the University of the West Indies were given credit to take on the project as part of their coursework. These students did research, promos on campus, helped to coordinate the launch and handed out branded merchandise while explaining the product at local theatres. These interns worked closely with the Ticktr entrepreneurs and Abovegroup, which proved to be a symbiotic and synergistic relationship that benefitted all parties.